Friday, March 2, 2012

Residents of those 23 Special Wards ("ku") had zero say in the decision. The decision was unanimously reached by the Assembly of Mayors of the 23 Special Wards, and the decision was quickly welcomed by the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the project of burning the disaster (radioactive) debris from Onagawa-machi in Miyagi Prefecture immediately started in December with the test incineration.

After the so-called "explanation" to the residents was done in the Special Wards, now the formality has been over. It's time to burn the debris no matter what. The first containers arrived at Chuo Waste Management Plant in Chuo-ku on March 2.

The governor of Tokyo and the mayors of the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo are so eager to "help out" people in the disaster-affected areas in Tohoku (where the radioactive fallout also landed) that they are willing to burn the disaster debris with radioactive materials, toxic chemicals, arsenic, asbestos, and no one knows what else, in the incineration plants with no special facilities to treat radioactive materials. These plants are often located in the middle of crowded residential/commercial areas with single-family homes, apartments, shops, schools, hospitals, small factories. When they are located on the landfills on Tokyo Bay, they are often close to public facilities like parks, schools, hotels.

These plants are not even for industrial waste; they burn regular garbage from households.

From Google Maps, some of the incineration plants in Tokyo's 23 Wards. The first two are the lucky two to receive the first batch of tsunami-soaked wood chips from Onagawa for the month of March:

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comments:

Is there no preliminary triage of this material?It would seem hugely irresponsible to just "burn it all'.Separately, is this not simply a PR stunt?I seem to remember debris estimates around 20 million tons, not sure if that includes all of it, that seems way more than can be shipped to Tokyo. Is Tokyo simply trying to nudge other regions into accepting the debris, leading by example so to speak?

Test was done, twice, by mixing in the household garbage. If Onagawa debris was burned all by itself, the fly ashes from the debris burning would have tested with higher level of radioactive cesium than the fly ashes from the garbage burning in Tokyo. Part of Tokyo may be more contaminated than Onagawa, but most of it is less contaminated.

No it's not PR. If he can get it, Tokyo governor would want ALL of debris to Tokyo and burn. He would get more tens of millions of dollars (several billion yen) for receiving debris. He would need money, as his government's investment in TEPCO hasn't turned out so well.

Right. And as the existing contamination in Tokyo declines, the government is bringing in more. Didn't you read this? It was posted and translated on ex-skf. http://mytown.asahi.com/iwate/news.php?k_id=03000001202290001#cnt Local officials in the disaster zones have said they'd rather keep the debris and the jobs it creates there. They also say it is not in the way. They have much more room to store it than Kobe did and Kobe handled its debris locally. There was never any discussion of doing otherwise in 1995. It's ridiculous to spend the money to move it. There's talk of shipping it to Okinawa! That's absurd! The government's purpose is to provide public funds to favoured firms. It's ridiculous to further pollute the largest city in Japan, the city that wants to hold the Olympics, but is spraying its own skies with caesium carried in from elsewhere. The IOC needs to hear this.

The more the radiation is spread around the more widespread the cancer and other negative health consequences will be spread. Then as the years go by the "spike" in cancer from areas closer to the accident will look less like a spike and more like a "bump".

I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is the backroom plan of the IAEA. You know the IAEA and the WHO (World Health Organization) have an agreement not to contradict each other. For a number of years the IAEA did more "research" in the Chernobyl area than the WHO did.

Think about it...why would the IAEA, an organization tasked with promoting nuclear energy worldwide be the main organization in Chernobyl...Coverup anyone??

>Right. And as the existing contamination in Tokyo declines, the government is bringing in more.

I doubt anything they could bring from Onagawa would be as contaminated as the the stuff they have been burning already, and no one has detected any increase in radiation around the plants.

About Iwaizumi's mayor, the guy probably owns the processing plant there. What I can tell you is that Setagaya-ku doesn't need a few extra yen for processing disaster debris, and the mayor there is antinuclear and has started giving public electricity contracts to companies other than Tepco.

Except for fly ashes at several incineration plants in 23 special wards in Tokyo, fly ashes from Onagawa is more contaminated than those in Tokyo.

People have detected increase in radiation around the plants.

I don't have any info about Iwaizumi Mayor owning processing plant or not, but I do know that thanks to him, 88 elementary school children in one of the districts in his town were able to escape from tsunami. Mayor had demanded and gotten the change of the emergency escape route. The escape route was rigidly determined by the national government, and the mayor said no way.

Can I see that data from Onagawa fly ashes? Cause checking the data of fly ashes from Tokyo processing plants, which are from July, I can only imagine the amounts of cesium that were being burned during April or May: http://www.union.tokyo23-seisou.lg.jp/topics/data/shokyakubai-230726.pdf

And this, "People have detected increase in radiation around the plants" is not true. The groups that are actually measuring radiation and getting equipment have moved on months ago and now they are focusing on measuring food.

Safecast have some drive maps around incineration plants and they haven't detected anything:http://maps.safecast.org/drive/495http://maps.safecast.org/drive/155http://maps.safecast.org/drive/150

Saying something is not true does not make it so. Radiation levels around the Tokyo bay have increased. A thing called a gieger counter told me this. Driving around every once in a while is not evidence. Don't get me wrong as I appreciate their contributions. Measuring every single day at the same spot is trending and from this a conclusion can be inferred. It is just not once a day at one location to further clarify.

@ ex-skf. Totally off topic but is there any chance you might consider changing the site banner on both your english an japanese sites? The ultraman banner is so very tall and is very distracting. If you could make it a shorter (1/3 or 1/2 the current height) it would look much better. I feel bad for blocking it but is very distracting and many people I have sent this site link too dismiss it right away as not being a serious site due to the banner image and size.

I love the Ultraman banner. It gives me a lift every day. Please don't change it. If Kintaman is unhappy with it, just drop your eyes lower into the blog. Let Laprimavera decorate his site as he wishes.

To more important points: I wonder just how much money the mayors of Tokyo and the other wards are making from this? Of course, I wish the debris was left where it was. Doesn't burning it just release dangerous and radioactive particles into the ecosystem helter-skelter? So distressing.

Asbestos is a mineral. It is not burnable. According to http://www.city.meguro.tokyo.jp/gyosei/keikaku/torikumi/shizen/haikibutsu/h23singikai/23dai2kaisingikai/files/siryou7saigaihaikibutu.pdf a test was made with a 20% disaster trash, 80% usual "gomi" mix and the fly ash and dioxin tests etc. were below the legal limit.

Whether asbestos burns or not, it is not something I want to increase my children's exposure to. There is a consortium of incinerators that actually determine what the incinerators burn and profit thereby. It's not really the mayor's decision and its not the municipality that profits. Trucking companies, JR, heavy equipment rental companies, construction companies that operate heavy equipment, and the incinerator consortium members all stand to make money from this. What independent source is monitoring this incineration? The Tokyo government made a show of "testing" the first batch for radiation by waiving a wand around, but did not allow reporters to check with their own equipment. Since they started incinerating in Tokyo, private monitors near the bay and in the near west suburbs have been showing consistently higher radiation readings. It depends on which way the wind blows, but the readings from a number of private sources have been consistently higher. There is a relatively finite amount of radioactive material from Fukushima now in Tokyo or Kawasaki or Osaka. Bringing in more will increase the amount of radioactive material in Tokyo or Kawasaki or Osaka. Whether that amount is dangerous or not can be debated. But adding to it will add to it. The same goes for dioxin. If Tokyo burns the normal quantity of Tokyo rubbish, Tokyo will experience the normal amount of dioxin emissions. If Tokyo burns Miyagi rubbish and the normal amount of Tokyo rubbish, Tokyo will experience the normal amount of Tokyo dioxin, plus the amount from Miyagi. 1+1 does not equal 0.

Apologies, I intended to write 1+1 does not equal 1. I do not know if the increased amounts of toxic substances are dangerous, but I do know that increasing their quantities will increase their quantities.

The incineration business is big money. The dumb sheeple who voted for Ishihara won't know the difference anyway. They all deserve what they get. That includes me since I live in Tokyo! Ironically, it is true that what Tokyo sowed is what it will reap, given that they are broke due to their decadent and profligate ways, so they need to pimp their health for a little fix of cash, even if it means contaminating the city of 35 million people to do it.The level of consciousness about this issue, I can tell you as a personal observation and having lived here for many years, is close to zero.Well, that is not entirely true, three hundred thousand people signed the petition to end nukes and I am sure they oppose the incineration, but that is still a small number compared to the vast majority of brain dead morons in this city.

@laprimavera, that link you gave compares ashes from mid-December. I posted a link from July, and most likely radiation levels were much higher in April or May.

What I'm telling you is that the incineration facilities have been burning radioactive stuff for one year, there is one facility per district (as you show in the maps), or more if we include the sewage treatment plants, and no one has found any increased radiation levels around them. I mean, if anyone can show me a link with proper data showing higher levels around them, good, but apart from some vague references I haven't seen anything.

Not that I care that much about the people from Miyagi, though, it's just that the whole campaign against the tsunami debris sounds like pure superstition at this point.

"It's safe to return and you can even drink the milk, cuz the radiation level in the exclusion zone is as high as in some places in Bavaria. Too bad the silly students of this reasonable teacher just don't feel like studying."

@anon at 7:56AM, yes that's from December, and that's the garbage that they mixed with Onagawa debris. The point was that by December the radioactivity of Tokyo's garbage was much lower than Onagawa's disaster debris that's been exposed to radiation. In April or May, radiation level was higher throughout Kanto and Tohoku, not just Tokyo, including Onagawa.

Superstition is this insane push by the government that everything is safe.

@anon at 10:59AM, thanks for the link. 40 microsievert/hour radiation in the forest in Namie doesn't compare with the Bavarian forest, I guess.

I cannot believe that money is the driving force here. Maybe I am naive, but I cannot believe that people would willingly & knowingly bring cancer, disease or contamination to their ancestral homeland, to their families, and to their friends in exchange for money. I feel it must be something else. Perhaps there is a sinister shadow govt. at work. This seems to be happening world-wide. We are treated like "useless-eaters"; like cattle. We are slowly becoming powerless; slaves.

Are they really burning the radioactive debris without some kind of scrubber system? That would be insane. I can see burning the debris to shrink it down, but without some kind of scrubber system is just crazy! :- "

As far as I know, they don't have scrubber systems. The governments large and small all claim bag filters would do the job, which they don't. But bag filters are all they talk about, as if nothing else matters.

@kintaman, I've been considering the banner change, but haven't decided what to do. I hear two opinions from my readers - ditch it and keep it, there is no in between, obviously. There are many readers, particularly in Japan, referring my blog as "ultraman blog".

As to being not taken seriously, well I don't know what to say. There are many serious-looking, legit-looking Fukushima-related sites that spew crap and rumors. I guess many readers go to these sites because they look serious, and consider the posts at those sites as "serious" even when they are absolutely not.

Let me also suggest a resized banner...perhaps make the .jpg to a .gif also. He is pretty Ultra at 939 by 441 pixels. No offense also...you are ten times the webmaster I am.I just wanted to give you my impression also and I have been on the Internet for 23 years and all of the years of the WWW.

on-topic remarks...

No scrubbers...just bag filters that are highly ineffective.

Also... stow the indignant reactionsfrom all the folks in North America, Europe and elsewhere. Incinerator bureaucrat idiots exist everywhere. Some sort of naked ape death wish I guess.

Hospitals and municipalities all across North America burn nuclear waste crap like it there is no tomorrow (and there may not be one day).

The average large municipal burners produce 92 tons of metal particle emissions...extremely fine and easily absorbed into the lungs and digestive tracts of carbon form beings. Burning produces entirely new elements that may have toxic consequences beyond current medical research.

The walking dead living around the radioactive waste burners may soon become the laying dead.

Here's an incineration article from last year that has plenty of information that will make anyone living next to one of these monsters give pause to what it means to stay rooted in your current neighborhood.

Politicians and bureaucrats have since childhood heard an extremely filtered message about nuclear power and radiation. It would take the equivalent of a religious conversion to change their minds. Furthermore, politicians obtain donations and votes from nuclear power interests and bureaucrats receive post retirement sinecures directly in the power industry or in construction firms that build and service power plants. They must convince the people that even this terrible disaster is of little consequence, whatever fell from the sky is not dangerous so let us vapourise it in the largest city in the nation. The government is saying that the amount of pollutants in Tokyo will not increase. If they mix it with other rubbish, it might not increase the amount of extremely dangerous substances that these facilities are already sending into children's lungs each day. But to the extent that radioactive materials from Fukushima in Tokyo are finite, Tokyo would have completed burning radioactive material from Fukushima on a certain date. Mixing extra materials with local materials will prolong the period of incineration, thus prolonging children's exposure to airborne radioactive substances. We need to keep in mind that this plan comes from a Japanese government that is urging families to return to areas 4 times more radioactive than the mandatory evacuation levels of the Soviet Union, a regime not noted for excessive concern regarding its civilian population. Furthermore, the Japanese regime is paying agents to post comments in its favour on internet venues. Finally, the entirety of the debris from the Hanshin earthquake, concentrated in a much smaller, much more urban area than Tohoku, was processed locally with no concerns or complaints whatsoever. The area in which the Tohoku debris now lies experiences frequent tsunamis, three since 1896, is in danger of future tsunamis, and should not be heavily rebuilt. Therefore the debris cannot be hindering reconstruction.

Many municipalities in the Tokyo area do not have any place to store the radioactive ash from their own incinerated rubbish, let alone take on more from Tohoku. The government of Tokyo is turning Tokyo Bay into a nuclear waste dump, but other localities don't have this option.

Please be aware that it's not realistic to expect much of the contamination of the stuff burnt there to land in Tokyo itself.It's more of a wide range distribution.

Just an example:The giant Vockerode brown coal power plant, erected 1937, site of the world's first commercial HVDC project (to supply 100-mile-distant Berlin with electricity), was a constant bone of contention between West and East Germany because the fumes from the extremely sulphuric coal it burnt were distributed many hundred miles via its 140 meter high chimneys, far into West Germany.This often caused bad smog in very distant areas, depending on weather conditions.

So it can be well assumed that the Tokyo incineration emissions will hit Korea more than Tokyo itself, for example (depending on wind direction).

> He would need money, as his government's investment in TEPCO hasn't turned out so well.LaPrimavera, I really love your sarcasm :D

> 40 microsievert/hour radiation in the forest in Namie doesn't compare with the Bavarian forest, I guess.

@anon 10:59The man this article reports about probably got deceived, see above.Actually, his story could be an interesting topic for psychologists.

> Don't know what to do yet.

Personally I agree with Darth 3/11...When I discovered your site last year, I first felt the banner somewhat "unusual", but I quickly got accustomed :)I have to admit I like it more and more as time passes, because it is so symbolic. In this mess of lies, disinformation and rumors about the disaster your blog is a real ray of hope. Symbolically it's like the superheroes in the comic strips. (By the way, thank you again for all this, keep on please!)

As this is not my affair I really hesitate to interfere. I'd just like to say "Es kommt nicht auf die aeussere Schale an, sondern darauf, was drinnen steckt!" (don't know how to translate that idiom well, but you said you know some German... maybe you understand what I mean.)Actually I believe I'd be a bit sad if you'd change the logo to a meaningless, non-symbolic one, or concentrate on externalities that distract from the content like neat formatting, nice icons and such things that actually don't matter.

The only suggestion I have would be to add a small translation line below the Japanese text, as this message actually not only matters to your Japanese readers.Anyway, it's not my affair. Please just do what you think is best.(By the way, that was the reason why I didn't say anything when you recently asked your readers whether you should mark some all-caps guy's verbal vomiting comment as spam. And you did the right thing imho...)

This is such a stupid idea. As if radiation from debris weren't enough, they're going to burn it so that it's airborn in the ashes too? They better not cry about the regret when they get cancer, coz it'd be too late then.

I mean I understand that getting rid of radiation is time consuming and costly, but there is an entire population of people that depends on this. And Japan can still ask for aid with the process, I mean it's not like other countries are just going to say "deal with it yourself, Japan. You've got enough robots."

The follow to this story IS that from February 1st 2013 Osaka city will be doing exactly the same. This is truly a crime against humanity.The central government are PAYING Osaka city a LOT of money to burn this iradiated debris....so much for helping your fellow Japanese !!.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

Along with commentary on day's financial news, it also provides links to the sites with financial and economic news, market data, stock technical analysis, and other relevant information that could potentially affect the financial markets and beyond.

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